Massacre of the Innocents Studies in the Cultural Afterlife of a Gospel Scene
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Warren Carter is the LaDonna Kramer Meinders Professor of New Testament at Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa, Oklahoma.Carter’s dive into the afterlives of Matthew’s Massacre of the Innocents is a game-changer for the field of reception history. His careful attention to the event of meaning-making, his willingness to name and call-out numerous contexts of oppression, and his ability to write clearly and effectively make this a superb text for theological education. From ancient manuscripts to modern headlines, from indigenous art to children’s bibles, Carter’s work not only examines the way people throughout history have “thought with” this text, it also beckons readers to reflect on the ways they too have “thought with” Matthew.
- Anna M. V. Bowden, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary,
With typical thoroughness, Warren Carter has written on one of the most riveting episodes in Matthew’s Gospel: King Herod sending soldiers to massacre young children in Bethlehem. This scene, as evidenced by a wide range of examples, has attracted the attention of theologians, artists, poets, playwrights, and musicians for centuries – as people in varying times and places wrestle with the enduring dynamic of tyrant, victims, and acts of unjust violence that Matthew’s narrative portrays. Carter’s approach reframes the concept of reception history from a static view in which the Biblical text “acts” on an audience to one in which readers “think with” the scene from a variety of perspectives. This stance is welcome, insofar as it opens space for diverse readers to read, respond to, and engage the Gospel story in their own ways – including the possibility of continuing to use Matthew’s narrative to address injustice and acts of violence in the world as so many have before.
- John Christianson, Morningside University,
Warren Carter has provided us with an informative and provocative survey of diverse ways in which readers/viewers/hearers have interacted with three poignant verses in Matthew’s Gospel (2:16–18) that narrate Herod’s massacre of the innocents. All told, Carter helps us to “read with” Matthew in diverse circumstances regarding a text that remains unfortunately timely given the continued prevalence of massacres in our own particular contexts.
Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology
This book examines fifty instances from the afterlife of Matthew’s “Massacre of the Innocents.” Warren Carter argues that interpreters “think with” the scene’s triad of power relations (tyrant, victims, means of tyranny) in various socio-political circumstances and media to make sense of these experiences and address their audiences.
Chapter 1 Introduction
Section 1 Earliest Interpretations
Chapter 2 Proto-Gospel of James
Chapter 3 Irenaeus
Chapter 4 Cyprian
Section 2 First Millennium Sermons
Chapter 5 Chrysostom: Sermon 9 (d.407)
Chapter 6 Chrysologus: Sermon 152 (d. 450)
Chapter 7 Quodvultdeus: Two Homilies on the Creed (430s CE)
Chapter 8 Leo, Bishop of Rome (d.461)
Chapter 9 Our Martyrs Are Better: A Fifth Century Anonymous Sermon
Chapter 10 Caesarius: Sermon 222, “On the Feast of the Holy Innocents” (d.542)
Chapter 11 Venerable Bede (d.735)
Chapter 12 Hildegard of Bingen (d.1179)
Section 3 Images
Chapter 13 Women at Chartres Cathedral (13th Century)
Chapter 14 Matteo di Giovanni (d.1495)
Chapter 15 Pieter Bruegel (d.1569)
Chapter 16 The Chapel of Lucrezia della Rovere (16th Century)
Chapter 17 The Book of Common Prayer, William Faithorne (1653)
Chapter 18 William Rimmer, Massacre of the Innocents (1858)
Chapter 19 Julia Chavarría, Massacre of the Innocents (1981)
Chapter 20 Bessie Harve